Department for Transport

A30

lord marlesford: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the A30 trunk road between Exeter and Penzance is not yet dual carriageway; and what plans they have to convert those sections to dual carriageway.

baroness sugg: Approximately 16 per cent (17 out of 109 miles) of the A30 trunk road between Exeter and Penzance is not yet dual carriageway. The remaining single carriageway sections are between Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross, and between Camborne and Penzance. The Government has committed to dualling the A30 between Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross (9 miles of the above 17 miles of single carriageway), with construction work due to start in 2019-20. Proposals to dual the A30 between Camborne and Penzance will be considered as part of decisions on the second Road Investment Strategy covering the period 2020-2025.

M11

baroness redfern: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are considering extending the M11 using funds announced for road infrastructure in the Budget.

baroness sugg: The Government is using evidence gathered about local priorities for road investment, such as the proposal to extend the M11, to inform the development of the second Road Investment Strategy. Investment decisions, using the £25.3 billion announced at Budget, will be confirmed in late 2019.

Department for Education

Children: Musical Instruments

lord kennedy of southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how many children learn to play a musical instrument in school; and whether the number has risen or fallen since 1997.

lord agnew of oulton: Information regarding the total number of children who have learned to play musical instruments at school since 1997 is not held centrally. However, according to the data for 2016/17, recently published by Arts Council England, 711,241 pupils learned to play instruments together as a whole class through the music education hub network. The equivalent figure for 2012/13 was 531,422. Music is compulsory in the National Curriculum for pupils aged 5-14. The National Curriculum programmes of study for music say that children should be taught to play instruments in key stages 1, 2 and 3. In maintained schools, pupils also have an entitlement in key stage 4 to study an arts subject (which includes music) if they wish.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Financial Reporting Council: Audit

baroness bowles of berkhamsted: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)’s Practice Note 10 Audit of financial statements of public sector bodies in the UK as applicable to public bodies should have been applied to the FRC's accounts for the year ended 31 March, given that the FRC was itself a public body for all that period.

lord henley: The Financial Reporting Council (FRC)’s Practice Notes contain auditing rather than accounting guidance, so are not directly applicable to the preparation of the FRC’s accounts. Practice Notes contain best practice guidance to help auditors apply auditing standards in the context of particular kinds of engagement (including public sector bodies, charities and banks). They do not contain additional requirements to those in auditing standards (ISAs (UK)), Practice Note 10 provides relevant context and application guidance for any audit engagement for a public sector body, including the FRC. The audit of the FRC is carried out in accordance with auditing and ethical standards used by all auditors in the UK. Practice Note 10 provides guidance on regularity. Regularity is the concept that transactions recorded in the financial statements of an audited business must be in accordance with the relevant framework. These frameworks are specific to the audited business and set out the requirements their transactions must comply with. The FRC auditor is not required to give a separate opinion on regularity because the FRC is required to prepare its accounts in accordance with Companies Act requirements and uses FRS 102.

Energy: Meters

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ability of current smart meter technology accurately to account for energy generated by domestic solar panels.

lord henley: Both SMETS1 and SMETS2 smart meters are compatible with microgeneration, including solar panels. All SMETS compliant electricity meters are capable of recording any electricity that is exported to the grid from onsite renewable generation sources, such as solar panels.

Company Accounts: Standards

baroness bowles of berkhamsted: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the function and remit of the BEIS External Stakeholder Group.

lord henley: The function and remit of the BEIS External Stakeholder Group was to provide advice and share industry insight with BEIS officials to facilitate the preparation of legislation on the UK’s company reporting framework in preparation of the UK’s departure from the EU. The stakeholder group was established in April 2018 to support the development of legislation needed in the unlikely event of the UK leaving the EU without a future agreement.

Company Accounts: Standards

baroness bowles of berkhamsted: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 24 October (HL10986), who are the current members of the BEIS External Stakeholder Group dealing with accounting law relating to International Accounting Standards; who each member (1) currently works for, (2) represents as stakeholder, and (3) was nominated for appointment to the group by; and whether any members (a) are currently, and (b) have been members of PwC’s Corporate Reporting Users Forum.

baroness bowles of berkhamsted: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 24 October (HL10986), who has been a member of the BEIS External Stakeholder Group dealing with accounting law relating to International Accounting Standards; who each member (1) worked for at the time they were members of the group, (2) represented as stakeholder, and (3) was nominated for appointment to the group by; and whether any members were also members of PwC’s Corporate Reporting Users Forum.

lord henley: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) External Stakeholder Group brought together the expertise and experience of those with an interest in the quality of accounts prepared by UK companies. Its membership was intended to bediverse to ensure a balance of views of those working as preparers of accounts, company advisers, industry representatives and users of accounts. Membership of the Group was in a personal capacity, acknowledging the individuals’ expertise in this area. The group met 6 times during the course of 2018 and is not expected to meet again.The members of the group were: NameOrganisationChris BuckleyGlaxoSmithKlineAndrew CarpenterAssociation of British InsurersJonathan ComptonBDOTony CliffordEYJake GreenGrant Thornton UKPeter HogarthPriceWaterhouseCoopersAndrew JollySlaughter and MayRichard MartinAssociation of Chartered Certified AccountantsLiz MurrallInvestment AssociationVeronica PooleDeloitteDavid PudgeClifford ChanceDanielle Stewart OBERSM UKNigel Sleigh-JohnsonInstitute of Chartered Accountants in England and WalesPamela TaylorKPMGDavid WoodInstitute of Chartered Accountants of ScotlandJed WrigleyInvestment AssociationAndy YoungLiverpool Victoria

Fracking

lord browne of belmont: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many objections to fracking they have received in 2018 to date.

lord henley: During 2018, the Department has received a range of correspondence from various stakeholders and the general public. The Government continues to work closely with regulators and with the shale industry to ensure that any concerns raised are appropriately addressed.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Land

baroness jones of moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement (1) a Land Value Tax, (2) enhanced Compulsory Purchase Orders, (3) land assembly powers, and (4) the recommendations in the report by the APPG on Land Value Capture, Capturing Land Value for the Public Benefit, published in November.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The Government is committed to using existing mechanisms of land value capture as effectively as possible. We have recently introduced major reforms to the planning rulebook to help local authorities capture land value for affordable housing, and make sure developers know the contributions expected of them. At Autumn Budget we also announced further reforms to improve the existing system of developer contributions. The key objectives of these reforms are to make the system of developer contributions more transparent and accountable. However, we recognise more needs to be done, and will continue to explore options to go further. Through the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017, the Government has taken forward wide-ranging reforms to make the compulsory purchase process clearer, fairer and faster for all. We are keen to let these recent reforms bed in but will continue to monitor their practical application. We announced at Budget a £10 million fund to support local authorities that want to establish delivery vehicles that have strong land assembly powers, and in the Summer legislated to enable the creation of locally-accountable New Town Development Corporations. We note the report by the APPG on land value capture, the HCLG Select committee has also recently held an inquiry on Land Value Capture and the Government is due to respond to the Committee’s recommendations shortly.

Sleeping Rough

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to coordinate the efforts of government departments, local authorities and non-governmental organisations to provide accommodation and other essential services, including medical care, to rough sleepers.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have recently published our Rough Sleeping Strategy, which will help people who sleep rough now and puts in place the structures to end rough sleeping once and for all. It sets out the first steps towards achieving our aim to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, backed by £100 million of funding over the next two years.We have set up a Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce which brings together ministers from key departments in preventing and reducing rough sleeping and homelessness, including the Department for Health and Social Care. The Taskforce will drive forward the implementation and delivery of our Rough Sleeping Strategy to achieve our commitment. Alongside the Taskforce, we have an expert Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel formed of key representatives from the homelessness sector and local government who fed into the Strategy and will continue to meet.We are also committed to working with all local authorities as we move towards a country where no one should ever sleep rough through our Rough Sleeping Initiative, in which we are providing 1,750 additional bed spaces for rough sleepers and an additional 531 dedicated homelessness workers. We are also working with local areas through measures set out in our Rough Sleeping Strategy such as the Rapid Rehousing Pathway, strengthening local homelessness strategies and supporting Health and Wellbeing Boards to recognise and respond to the health needs of people who sleep rough.

Ministry of Defence

Red Arrows

lord berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government which companies they expect to provide the £2.5 billion in foreign direct investment for the UK which the Royal Air Force expects to be generated by the Red Arrows' 2019 tour of the US and Canada.

earl howe: The RAF is a key contributor to the UK's prosperity agenda by facilitating the GREAT campaign's targeted commercial and wealth generating activities within designated countries which for the 2019 tour will be the US and Canada. The £2.5 billion is an estimate based on previous tours. It is too early to provide the names of companies we expect to provide foreign direct investment as agreements have still to be reached.

Veterans: Health

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they propose to take to help to improve the health and wellbeing of military veterans.

earl howe: This Government wants to continue to support veterans and to do more, which is why on 14 November 2018 we published the Strategy for our Veterans (Cm 9726) and supporting UK Government Consultation Paper (Cm 9727) that outlines what we aim to do and consults on how we will achieve it. The full documents can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strategy-for-our-veterans.  By 2028 we will be doing more to ensure that each veteran is valued, contributing and supported. One of our aims is that all veterans enjoy a state of positive physical and mental health and wellbeing, enabling them to contribute to wider aspects of society. In order to achieve this outcome, we will focus our efforts on enabling consistency of medical outcomes for veterans, through a smooth transition of provision from in-Service to post-Service and sharing effective practices amongst clinical and healthcare communities; providing bespoke treatment for those veterans who have bespoke needs because of their service, and targeting any identified health and wellbeing needs of veterans in comparison to the general population.   Veterans’ health is broadly aligned with that of the rest of the general population and most veterans’ health requirements are sufficiently met by existing NHS provision. However, several tailored initiatives are already in place to cater for specific veteran needs, including priority access to NHS secondary care in England, Scotland and Wales for Service related conditions, subject to the clinical need of all patients. Further work is also ongoing to increase awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant within the NHS, such as the Royal College of General Practitioners Accreditation programme (over 90 GP practices in the pilot area of the West Midlands) and Veterans Covenant Hospital Alliance, improved e-learning packages and the inclusion of the Covenant as part of the curriculum for all GPs nationally. 



Strategy for our veterans
(PDF Document, 3.72 MB)

Ministry of Defence: Allowances

lord foulkes of cumnock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what allowance is paid to Ministry of Defence officials based in offices outside London when they are required to stay overnight in London in connection with their work.

earl howe: Civil servants employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) can claim for the additional expense incurred through economy class travel, overnight accommodation booked through the Defence Travel Hotel Booking Service and the cost of subsistence when undertaking business travel (also known as 'duty travel' or 'detached duty'). This may be for a meeting, conference, approved training course, or other business requirement, at a location different to an employee's usual place of work.In addition to the necessary expenses incurred through travel, accommodation and subsistence, MOD civil servants who travel and stay overnight can claim an Incidental Expenses Allowance of £3 per night in the UK for additional, specific miscellaneous costs such as laundry charges.In accordance with the Civil Service Management Code, staff should not profit from official duties, nor be out of pocket. The MOD has clear policies and guidance on what may be claimed, and on audit requirements for individual travellers, line managers and business areas.

Army Reserve: Recruitment

lord browne of belmont: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many volunteers were recruited to the Army Reserve between January 2017 and July 2018.

earl howe: Intake for the Army Future Reserve 2020 between 1 January 2017 and 31 July 2018 was 6,513. Further information can be found on gov.uk at the link below:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018

Army: Northern Ireland

lord browne of belmont: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people from Northern Ireland were recruited to the army in each of the last three years.

earl howe: The information requested will take time to collate and I will write to the noble Lord when it is available.

HMS Vanguard

lord west of spithead: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have placed Babcock International under increased scrutiny following concerns about the current refit of HMS Vanguard; and whether such scrutiny puts at risk the maintenance of Continuous At Sea Deterrence.

earl howe: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to working closely with Babcock to safely deliver submarine support work, including planned maintenance projects. The MOD has an existing team in Devonport in support of submarine maintenance delivery; this is part of a long-standing arrangement, which now includes increased performance monitoring. It is the policy of Her Majesty's Government that we do not comment on submarine operations. Having four nuclear-armed submarines ensures at least one is on patrol at all times, taking account of the cycle of deployment, training and maintenance.